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Dangerous Amusements for the Young
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A Time of Trial Before the Young
Young Sabbathkeepers who have yielded to the influence of the
world will have to be tested and proved. The perils of the last days
are upon us, and a trial is before the young which many have not
anticipated. They will be brought into distressing perplexity, and
the genuineness of their faith will be proved. They profess to be
looking for the Son of man, yet some of them have been a miserable
example to unbelievers. They have not been willing to give up
the world, but have united with the world in attending picnics and
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other gatherings for pleasure, flattering themselves that they were
engaging in innocent amusement. Yet it is just such indulgences that
separate them from God and make them children of the world.
Some are constantly leaning to the world. Their views and
feelings harmonize much better with the spirit of the world than with
that of Christ’s self-denying followers. It is perfectly natural that they
should prefer the company of those whose spirit will best agree with
their own. And such have quite too much influence among God’s
people. They take part with them and have a name among them, but
they are a text for unbelievers and for the weak and unconsecrated
ones in the church. In this refining time these professors will either
be wholly converted and sanctified by obedience to the truth, or they
will be left with the world to receive their reward with the worldlings.
God does not own the pleasure seeker as His follower. Those
only who are self-denying, and who live lives of sobriety, humility,
and holiness, are true followers of Jesus. And such cannot enjoy the
frivolous, empty conversation of the lover of the world.
Separation From the World
The true followers of Christ will have sacrifices to make. They
will shun places of worldly amusement because they find no Jesus
there—no influence which will make them heavenly-minded and
increase their growth in grace. Obedience to the word of God will
lead them to come out from all these things and be separate.
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“By their fruits ye shall know them” (
Matthew 7:20
), the Saviour
declared. All the true followers of Christ bear fruit to His glory.
Their lives testify that a good work has been wrought in them by